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Sikhs in Latin America: Travels among the Sikh Diaspora
Reviewed by: Dr.Hardev Singh Virk, Professor Emeritus, Eternal University, Baru Sahib, H.P.
The book under review is divided into 13 chapters followed by 10 appendices. A few years back, I was introduced to the author when he called me after reading my travelogue to Uzbekistan and Myanmar published in the Sikh Review, Kolkata. I found Swarn Singh Kahlon deeply motivated to write about the Sikh Diaspora. He had collected a lot of information during his travels abroad, mostly to Europe and America, in connection with his professional career, while working for a multinational company (ICI India). In the preface to his book, the author frankly admits: "My only claim to originality is to introduce Latin America as part of the Sikh Diaspora. In any study of Sikh Diaspora, Latin America has been grossly neglected."
In the introductory chapter, the author gives the background of this study in the following words: "I have been globetrotting since the late 1950s when I went to USA for higher studies and work experience. It was an era when the Sikh was considered either a Maharaja, or a pauper who presumably had no money to shave his beard." The author's curiosity to know more about Sikh migrants became a sort of hobby - expensive but very rewarding and exciting in later years. He has frequently travelled to study the Sikh Diaspora. He visited Argentina, Bolivia, and Brazil in 2005 and Belize, Mexico, Cuba, Panama, and Ecuador in 2006. A chapter each is devoted to Sikh Diaspora in these countries.
Chapter 1 with title "Sikhs on the Move" gives a history of the Sikh migration with their founder, Guru Nanak, himself as a prolific traveller of his times. The British encouraged the Sikhs to join the army and for other security duties in the British Empire and thus began their migration to Malaya, Thailand, Hong Kong, and China. From there, many enterprising Sikhs migrated to British outposts of Australia, New Zealand, and Fiji, while the more ambitious among them ventured out to USA and Canada, the El Dorado of their dreams. The author has given useful data about Sikh migrants, current estimates of global Sikh population, history of migration and establishment of Sikh Gurdwaras in countries of their adoption in tables 5-8 of Chapter 1.
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